by Wallace Wyss –
Elon Musk – the world’s most controversial capitalist, would have us believe that buying a robotaxi is like starting your own Uber business. He envisions you own the vehicle and while you are at work, dozens of people will rent it, one after another, and take trips, and each time it lets them off, it goes to the next customer who reserves it.
He envisions owner’s making hundreds of dollars per day while they themselves are in an office doing their regular job.
CAR DAMAGE–WHO’S TO BLAME?
Now the bad part of this plan. What if customer A (or B or C) spills food on the seats and doesn’t clean it? What if they get a little dent? What if they steal something from the car?
Regular customer-piloted rental cars are checked back into a rental station at the end of their rental and a quick inspection made to make sure it is in good condition (especially if it’s replenished with gas). So are we to assume renters of your robotaxi will always dutifully stop and spend the time to recharge it? What if there’s no Tesla Supercharger nearby the last renter’s destination?
The promise that a robotaxi will be $30,000 is facetious, a pipe dream, but it gets worse if they are priced more like $50,000 yet you–the owner–will be responsible for the expense of repairing dents, nicks, scratches, and cleaning messy interiors. How will you know which of the 5 to 10 renters that drove it each day did the damage if no one inspects it in between rentals? When you add in these “what ifs” it brings the pie-in-the-sky picture Musk envisions crashing back to earth.
It’s not quite the same as renting your vacation home to renters–you qualify them first. You inspect it when they leave. Then there’s insurance. I think insurance companies won’t like insuring robotaxis–it will make them nervous to think there’s no driver and yet this $30,000-$50,000 car is wandering about like a horse that’s broken free of its hitching post.
UBER CHECKS OUT DRIVERS
According to Michael Goode, a Memphis attorney who has used Uber in several cities, Uber does credit checking before their drivers decide to pick up a customer.
Says Goode:
“Uber drivers can see the ride history of any rider BEFORE they accept the ride. If a person just signed up for Uber an hour ago and has no rating (from previous Uber drivers) then most Uber drivers might think twice about accepting a ride, especially going to a shady neighborhood.
If someone steals a credit card and then steals a car, Tesla has announced no safeguard. Uber drivers know at once if this rider has just signed up. Uber allows drivers to see the rating and tip history of a rider BEFORE they accept rides.
Uber allows the driver to charge the credit card of a rider if there is damage (like vomiting drunk in the back seat.) This is only possible because the driver KNOWS who the last rider was.
In Tesla’s plan, there have been several riders in your car by the time you, the car owner, have a chance to see the damage. The car owner is faced with the task of finding out “Who did it?”
Waymo (owned by Google) has interior cameras to monitor damage. Waymo has lots more cameras, which makes the car cost way way more.
I’m not even going to delve into the legal complications if your robotaxi is used in a crime as a getaway car. Or does a hit and run and leaves a victim lying bleeding in the road? A 4,000 lb. vehicle is just too dangerous a thing to let wander around, answering every beck and call.
PARKING WOES
And then the question comes up–where is your robotaxi supposed to park between assignments? Some lots in downtown Los Angeles charge up to $20 an hour. The parking fees alone could wipe out the rental income. And what about neighborhoods that don’t allow street curbside parking? Can a robotaxi read and interpret signs? And what about handing the parking lot machine parking ticket–robotaxis don’t have arms so far…who pays the parking fines if your robotaxi finds an illegal place to park?
Although I haven’t heard of any rival operating in San Francisco being deterred by fog that is one area where robotaxis that depend largely on cameras will have a challenge–and that is nothing compared to Fargo, ND in a snowstorm.
HACKERS FIELD DAY
Not just Tesla but there is a worry with autonomous cars that no manufacturer will talk about. Several years ago some hackers filmed a friend who was in an EV. They hacked the electronic signal guiding his car and brought it to a dead stop–in traffic! If autonomous cars can be hacked into, will passengers be safe? Maybe the occupants will be held at ransom until a ransom is paid (electronically of course).
LEGAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Just as insurance companies are skedaddling out of California because of fires and Florida because of hurricanes, they will steer clear of autonomous robotaxis because it’s not decided if one has an accident whose fault it is. The driver? There is no driver. The owner may have no idea who was “hiring” the car at the time of an accident, or traffic violation. What if it has an accident with absolutely no one on board?
Appealing to the capitalist notion that owning a robotaxi locks you into a guaranteed second income is a little bit too good to be true. Renters do on occasion mis-treat the objects they rent. It’s a pipe dream.
Musk is spinning. He is damn lucky Waymo is out there ahead of him with robotaxi fleets operating in three cities, showing what to expect. What about the fact they were fined over a million dollars by the Federal government for the time a lady was hit by a human-driven car only to have a Waymo come along next, hit her again, and drag her twenty feet?
There’s going to be lawsuits aplenty when robotaxis are out on America’s roads by the thousands. Suits from customers, suits from cities whose parking rules were violated…
What say you?
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
THE AUTHOR Wallace Wyss is a motoring historian now in the fine arts as a portraitist of classic cars.
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